OncoMark Appoints Professor John Crown as Chief Medical Officer

OncoMark Ltd, an Irish diagnostics company focused on the development of novel panels of cancer biomarkers to aid treatment decisions for cancer patients, today announced the appointment of Professor John Crown as the company’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO).

OncoMark’s lead product is a prognostic assay for early stage breast cancer which determines the risk of recurrence for patients and thus identifies those patients who can safely forego chemotherapy treatment.

Professor John Crown MD, MBA, a consultant medical oncologist at St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, is an oncology thought leader who has published extensively in clinical and translational breast cancer research.

He graduated from University College Dublin (UCD) Medical School in 1980 and then trained in general medicine in the Trinity College Dublin/Federated Dublin Voluntary Hospitals and in Guy’s Hospital, London. His oncology training took place in the Mount Sinai Hospital and in Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre in New York and in 1989 he joined the faculty of Memorial Sloan-Kettering as a specialist in breast oncology.

On his return to Ireland Professor Crown developed the St. Vincent’s University Hospital medical oncology clinical research programme, and was the founding chairman of the Irish Cooperative Oncology Research Group. In addition, he is the Newman Clinical Research Professor in UCD’s School of Medicine and has been awarded the Thomas Baldwin Research Chair in Translational Cancer Research at Dublin City University.

Commenting on the appointment Des O’Leary, CEO, OncoMark, said, “I am delighted to welcome such a renowned clinical oncologist and thought leader to the company. Through his extensive clinical experience and deep knowledge of the clinical utility of biomarker tests in oncology, Professor Crown will play a vital role as we launch the OncoMasTR test in global markets.”

Professor John Crown said, “I am delighted to have been appointed OncoMark’s CMO. I am very excited about the potential of the company’s technology platform and believe the OncoMasTR breast cancer test comprehensively addresses barriers to adoption of prognostic tests. It delivers on the promise of personalised treatment choices in a cost effective manner and will bring the benefits of precise molecular prognostication to women who currently cannot access it.”

OncoMark a spin-out from UCD’s School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, is headquartered at NovaUCD, the Centre for New Ventures and Entrepreneurs, at University College Dublin.

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